i say kudos to buffet. its a nice story. guys a champ. takes balls to give away 40 billion bucks. who among us would give away 85% of our wealth? even if our wealth was as enormous as buffets?
A nice gesture and a complete waste as well. Most of the money will be stolen by corrupt governments, corporations, foundations, etc., etc. Only the naive think otherwise. He could have done more good just passing the money around randomly. Yes, I am a cynical bastard! Just seems like the lazy way to help your fellow man. Sometimes you gotta' get in there and get your hands dirty.
I didn't read the links, but I share your skepticism. It's a good trait for a trader: buy the rumor, sell the news.
People that accumulate great wealth like to avoid tax & create charity trust/foundation. Buffet was talking about tax issue today in the interview. He probably write off everything & pay nothing for his income tax. I am glad he & Bill are trying to help the world instead of passing every dollar to the children.
http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/25/magazines/fortune/gates.fortune/index.htm Gates talks about his decisions and Buffet's donation. Good article. Should boost his PR ratings a bit. I'm looking forward to seeing what his foundation will do now with their vast(er) resources.
Bill Gates created a solution of a common computer operating system and a problem at the same time in that it was a monopoly. I think a good idea for Bill would be to convert all the remaining shares that he has left of Microsoft into a charitable trust. Half of the dividends of the shares would be used to purchase back the remaining shares and the other half of the dividends would be given to charity. In time, 100% of the shares would be held by the charity and it could continue to give donations in perpetuity or at least as long as Microsoft exists. This would nullify the argument against a monopoly for a common computer operating system for the world. It would also allow for larger donations over a longer period of time.
His kids deserve little, so that's exactly what they should get. There are few people more pathetic that the children of the wealthy who live off of their parents because they are too lazy and spoiled to go out and win their own fortune. Sam Walton's descendents come to mind, esp that loser granddaughter who hired someone to complete her college coursework. I've already told my parents what to do with my "inheritance": spend it, because I don't want any of it.
All depends on who they give the money to. A lot of the money goes to organizations that spend the money on administration and "studies". Hopefully, these shrewd businessman will get involved and make there money isn't pissed into the ocean. There are good non-profits out there but generally foundations don't contribute to them...
the gates foundation already has $32 billion in it. so there you go. most of bill gates' wealth is already in it. it's a tax shelter guys. he's not leaving microsoft to focus on philantropical efforts. he's leaving microsoft to focus on the organization that has his money. for you to receive the enormous tax benefits of the tax shelter, your "philantropic" entity must distribute a minimum of 5% of the assets you contributed to it assets. 5% of $32 billion is $1.6 billion, which is the amount of money that the gates foundation distributed last year. in return, he can sell his microsoft stock inside the gates foundation and not pay ANY capital gains tax. can you imagine how much money this is for someone like bill gates? then he can use the foundation to pay himself a salary. lose 5% a year, but gain many times that in tax savings. if the rest of the money was simpy in treasury bills then he will be making that 5% back. this is how the game is played guys. he uses a tax loophole specially designed for people like him, and then makes himself look good in the press. sure, someone down the line probably did benefit from the $1.6 billion that was actually distributed (see my earlier post), but it's nowhere near the $32 billion number.